John Baldessari - Throwing Three balls in the Air to get a Straight Line

At the Tate Modern, in one of the many rooms of Baldessari's "Pure Beauty" retrospective, visitors could have a look at a selection of the artist's most creative books. Along with Ingres and Other Parables, Fable or Brutus killed Caesar, a copy of "Throwing Three Balls..." was on display.

This is a trend: more and more, contemporary art exhibitions include book sections - for instance, Ed Ruscha or Martin Parr at Paris Jeu de Paume (two outstanding book makers and/or book lovers). For some artists, indeed, books are an essential part of the work. More recently, even group exhibitions, such as "Elles" at Centre Pompidou, joined the trend.

I was glad to see Tate curators didn't overlook Baldessari's books. "Throwing Three Balls" is very typical of the artist's very personal method of applying concepts, in a playful way. The 14 plates included in the portfolio, published in 1973, are the "best of thirty-six attempts". Yet, all of them are imperfect. We are not in Carl Andre's or Sol Lewitt's linear world. Here, orange balls absurdly fly high in the sky, with no other purpose than the "pure beauty" of the gesture.

When I began collecting artists's books, some time ago now, "Throwing Three Balls" was virtually unfindable, with a cult status. Fortunately, an Italian bookseller uncovered several dozens copies, that quickly sold on eBay or Abebooks. Now, the book is getting scarce again. The window wasn't open for a long time.